The Arkansaw traveler., 1887-11-12
HANGING IS SERIOUS.

from experience regarding death by hanging, consequently we have in our literature but few autobiographical accounts of the execution of the capi- tai punishment act. In the main, the phrase capital punishment" is cor rect, for when capitalists agree that man shall be punished, the courts gen. erally render their decisions accord ingly.
 While the man in the title role of execution undoubtedly bears the brunt of the performance, yet the spectators are not wholly free from anxiety. Hi- larity at a hanging requires rather uncommendable strength of nerve. A strict observance of the old common law renders it necessary that the sher- iff should wear solemn cast Of conn- tenance, and that all his verbal com munications should be delivered in voice slightly shattered by emotion. There is no work of standard ethics defining the polite usages and good breeding for reporters, but it is gener- ally conceded that these restless nerve centres of the press should cease ask ing questions of the doomed man shortly before, or at least immediately after the death trigger is touched. If the hanging take place quietly and modestly in the corridor of jail, it is not necessary for the reporters to crowd the doomed man away from the position to which he is, by the de- cision of the court, entitled; neither is it thought to be in good form for a reporter, just previous to the conven- tional "dull thud," to advise the title role performer to take certain reme- dies for cold or any other in- disposition from which he may be suffering. On the occasion of a public hanging in the coun- try, the new reporter is afforded an excellent opportunity for an inn pressive display of the distinctive privileges which are granted to the press. With notebook and pencil proudly exhibited, he stands on the scaffold, and with that India rubber smile whose legitimate parents are MT and Mrs Extreme Self Satisfac- tion, he surveys the breast -heaving crowd. He shows the people that in the discharge of his great though merciless duties he feels no stirring emotions. He lifts up the hem of the doomed wretch's black robe and exam ines it; pulls at the rope hanging from the beam above; touches the wretch on the shoulder and asks him foolish question; writes few words in his notebook; and then, by his air, announces that he is ready to see the law vindicated.
 "Who is that man, standing off wonder, shuddering?"
 He is an old reporter
 As nearly as can remember, have "written up" twenty-six hangings; and, in truth, the last one affected me more than the first. have seen men tremble, have seen their knees knock together, but I have never heard a condemned man utter a word of fear. Some of them, swayed by religious enthusiasm, shouted under the black cap; others, believing not in future existence, smiled at the reading of the death warrant. I shall never forget the execution of a negro named Clint Anderson. He was convicted of a nameless crime and was sentenced to be hanged in Little Rock. I have never seen a more powerful man, physically and I have never seen a black face-even as the dusky shadows of the old "mammy" days come up before me-which held 90 many of those indescribable lines that draw an expression of kindness. Anderson quietly but firmly protested his inno- cence, and such pressure had been brought to bear in his behalf that up to the time when the moose was ad-